By the Sword
by WeLonelyOldSouls
Summary: Kirito logs into SAO, planning to have some fun. Little does he know that this place has no escape. Here, there are no rules beyond what a man makes for himself. Here, anything is possible. It all depends on how the chips fall.


**AN: To my old fans, I'm back. This is not the sequel to Ranger, Ranger. Instead, this is another take on my original idea. But I hope you enjoy it. **

"Link Start!" with the command, the world in front of the boy blurred and spun as the interface bled into his brain's receptors. His vision had already started changing over, and the sense of taste was next. Then he smelled not his comfortable room, but the sterile smell of a hospital or clinic. Something heavy on bleach. After that the whir of his computer fans faded out to be replaced by fire crackling. Last of all, the feeling of his body pressing on the blankets atop his bed faded away.

Kazuto opened his eyes to find he was standing in a slate room, devoid of windows. A few torches and a fireplace burned and crackled cheerfully to light the space.

"Select character?" He heard come from somewhere, and a book on the table opened. Kazuto approached and struck out the default option, before he started customizing his avatar. Before long, there was just one black left on the page: name.

He thought about using his old username, but he had created mechwarrior112 nearly seven years ago, and he wanted a more serious name now that he was grown up.

"Kirito." He wrote in the book, before closing it, not even waiting for the ink to dry and turn red or stay black to indicate availability. A lock clicked as the door unlocked, and Kirito stepped out into the new world he had thrown himself into.

The whole creation process was at least partially familiar, as he had been part of the Beta test. Of course, there had been far less options back then, so he had played around. The sight in front of him was familiar too- a long hallway full of doors that every once in a while clicked open to let people out. The crowd in front of him was a mix of colors and heights and shapes and sizes. Predominately male, they all shuffled down the stairwell and out of the main gates. In the top left of his vision, a circle faded into existence, detailing a map of the streets and a sea of blue dots.

"Would you like to start the tutorial?" A voice chimed in his ear and he looked to see a flashing icon in the corner of his vision. Kirito ignored the icon for now and pushed his way to the side of the crowd. Ducking through a hole in the fence he had remembered from before, Kirito sat on the bench in the garden he snuck into and opened his menu.

Smoothly, he flew down the list of options, toggling things on and other off, and adjusting other settings. He ignored warnings and e-signed waivers in a flurry of movement before finally tapping the accept button and bracing himself.

What felt like a swarm of bees buzzed and crawled over his body as the game updated and his vision went white. Every sense cut out for a moment before rushing back in.

For the first time since he dove in today, Kirito felt alive again. His vision was partially obscured by the various monitors and symbols, but they were all where he wanted them. He felt the rough clothes you spawned with, smelled the scent of flowers in the air and could hear the low murmur of the people on the other side of the fence and feel the treading of feet through his boots. Kirito had bypassed the protective measures in the nerve gear, fully opening the signal integration. As a safety precaution, as some testers had experienced Dive sickness, RECT had installed filters in the BIOS of the nerve gear. Only by bypassing them could you fully drop out of your body and into the game. Otherwise, there would always be a persistent sensation of not quite being in reality. It would always feel a little muted, a little less sharp. Kirito was connived it was an echo of your real body's signals still passing through- just a trickle, but enough the completely shatter immersion. And he paid for a Full Dive experience, not a half dive or even three quarters. For him, it was all or nothing.

"Oh, a show all for me? You should know Ki-kun, most people charge for showing that much skin all at once." The voice, female comes from the girl emerging form the bushes. She's taller than he is, which isn't saying much, but distinctive with her blue-one-green-streak hair and whisker marks.

"Argo." Kirito groans.

"What? You missed having someone as lovely as me to show off for? I'm flattered, but I'm afraid my work comes first. Though, if you insist, I can certainly sell the data, after all you do want what's best for me, no? and that includes making a serious profit." She says teasingly, though scrolling through some image captures.

"How much?" he groans.

"Just this once, I'll be nice to you ki-kun." She says, deleting the images and winking. "But you owe me!" she sings.

"What do you want?" he sighs.

"Why, just to say hello to you, check in, make sure you haven't been replaced with some other boring Ki-kun." She says this as if being boring is the worst crime in the books.

"I'm here. In the flesh. What else?" Kirito snaps, itchy to start grinding and getting his gear together.

"Well, you do know that we're all stuck in the town for the first three days right?" she says lazily.

"WHAT?!" he yells.

"It's a fairness thing, making sure everyone knows the controls before letting anyone loose on the world. Prevents some players form having an unfair advantage." She delivers.

"This is such a drag." Kirito moans, throwing himself back on the bench. "Then why'd I bother to sign in today?"

'Couse you don't have a real-world information broker like me. Speaking of, pay up." Argo says.

"You're an extortionist." Kirito grouses as he flips her a coin.

"And you're cheap. See you around, Ki-kun." She says, ducking back under a bush and disappearing. Kirito could investigate, but he doesn't really want to know what all Argo gets up to. Though, he has nothing else to do. Sure, there are in town quests, but they're… _tedious_ and _boring_. And they don't reward much. By the time he decides its worth investigating where Argo went, whatever mechanism she used to travel is gone. He searches the wall and under the bush, even starts digging only to attract the attention of some NPC guard's and get yelled at before being kicked out.

Kirito wanders around for a while, watching the player base find their way. Some of them are running the intro quests, delivering messages or goods to the vendors who reward them with mere pennies. Sighing, he opens his menu and goes to log out.

Only, the button is greyed out. Like it's a bug. But, it can't be a bug. No software like this could ever launch without a functioning logout system. None. It would never pass safety standards. Unless, _he_ did something. Kirito pulls out his menu and starts running though the various settings, looking for anything that could be disrupting the sign-out option. He doesn't find anything, but before he can close his menu someone interrupts him.

"Whoa, that looks sick bro, who'd you do that?" Standing next to him is a taller man with a red bandana on his head.

"It's just the advanced menu." Kirito explains.

"Yeah, but what does it do? This is my first Dive game, and I'm a little lost. Help me out and I'll pay you."

"N-" Kirito first says no automatically, before he thinks about it. He's normally against fleecing new players, but he is stuck in town for three days. And he has nothing to lose from it, as the guy can just make a new character. "Sure."

"Cool, I'm Klein. So what does that thing do?"

As Kirito explains things, he keeps an eye out for Klein's' menu. The guy looks on for a while before finally pulling it up. Kirito leans over slightly, and a shiver goes down his spine. The guys log out option is disabled too.

"Have you always been unable to logout?" Kirito asks.

"Have I what- " he spins and looks at his menu, frantically jabbing the button, looking at the time and then hitting it some more. "Dammit I have a pizza arriving in two minutes! If I'm not there to accept it, they're going to put me on the blacklist! They're the only place who delivers to me! I need to get out of here!" Klein freaks out and starts dong all sorts of acrobatics to try and dislodge the nerve gear, only for Kirito to explain that it doesn't work like that.

"There's something wrong with this." Kirito says, unaware how prophetic he is.

* * *

Pandemonium. After Kayaba's announcement, the whole town is in panic. Some people are catatonic on the ground, frozen by the fear. Others are raging and running and screaming. Some are sobbing and clinging to their friends who mayor may not be who they thought they were. Some are trying to fight, but the safety barriers are stopping that.

Kirito looks out over the crowd from the rooftop he fled to. He's not scared, not really. A little concerned, but not about dying in game. Rather, he's worried about his family. About what happens if the power goes out, or if they decide not to move him. He knows he can beat this, but will it be worth leaving if it takes him too long? RPG's like this are designed for hundreds if not thousands of hours of content. And though he doesn't have to sleep, mental fatigue is a thing, and will hurt him. He's less upset than he is angry. At Kayaba, at RECT, at himself. If he hadn't signed in day one, hadn't been in such a rush, they'd be watching this on the news, and he wouldn't be trapped here.

Worst of all, buried deep, he's glad. This is what he always wanted, wasn't it? To escape reality for somewhere else. Well, they always said be careful what you wish for. Now, Kirito understands just how true that is.

* * *

Day two is worse than day one. Everyone walks around in a daze, in a fugue state. Fittingly, it is cloudy, but doesn't rain. It's just dark and sullen. There are some bright spots, people trying to help others. In a cruel twist, Kayaba blocked off the edge of the map. No one can jump and escape. They're trapped in the town of beginnings for another three days. So, the people who were that desperate can't jump. Instead, they're dragged back by people who want to help. There's only a handful of them, med students and counselors and social workers, and simply empathetic people dong their best, but they took over the church and are doing their best. They wrangled all the kids too- those who snuck on despite the age warnings, or who were shoved in by their parents who didn't want to deal with them.

Other places are warmer, a lot warmer. Fiery, in fact. Half the corners are full of recruiters riling people up. Getting them to pledge to a guild. Using their anger at Kayaba to enlist them. Kirito knows of three main groups shaping up: the army, who is by far the largest. The DDA, or divine dragon alliance, who are a multi-platform RPG clan. And last of all the United Front. All three are pulling people in by the dozens and building up.

* * *

Day three is when it gets ugly. The army raided the DDA in the night, stealing supplies and locking away players for anti-army talk. They started taxing bridges and shaking down player merchants. By sheer numbers, they block anyone from interfering. The number of unaffiliated players dwindles, and other problems start arising. Someone leaked the beta player's names. Every one of them has a bounty on their heads, from every group. Information is the only true currency right now, and unfortunately, Kirito knows a lot. Not as much as Argo, who somehow managed to remain independent though known by each faction. Kirito had only just dodged an army patrol and snuck past a DDA outpost when he was winged with a spitball. Looking over, Argo was crouched on the roof and waved him up.

"What do you want?" Kirito asked.

"It's what you want. I found a way out of the city." She whispers.

"I'll give you everything." He says immediately, knowing that the information is worth everything he has. "All of the starting gear, and more once I earn it. Anything to be out of here."

"Tempting, but no. I decided the price already." She says coolly.

"What do you want?"

"Chaos." Her eyes light up as one of the players below lights a torch. "I want you to break open the army prison, and destroy the United Front."

Kirito has to force back his initial reaction. It's risky. If he's caught by the army, they'll lock him up. The worst punishment he can endure- to be stuck unable to play the game. Is it worth it?

"How?" he asks.

"Smart of you, Ki-kun. Asking for more rather than just blindly accepting. The army is using the main castle's jail as their prison. But, the baron of the castle has a master key they don't know about. You get that and give it to a smith named Lisbet, and she'll make copies. Then all you have to do is get the keys in there. Good huh? So what do you say?"

"Tell me about the United Front."

"They're a guild formed by three players in the Boar's knee tavern, and-"

"Argo."

"Spoilsport. So, no one knows yet that the charter of a guild is destructible. And, quite a few players are waking up to the fact that they signed up for something they don't understand. They are just now reading the terms of the contract."

"The taxes and dues." Kirito breathes.

"Exactly. You destroy the charter, and UF collapses." Argo says.

"How do I destroy it? Nothing in town can do damage." Kirito asks.

"You've got to solve that one. You do this, and I'll send you the location and guide you out. I'll message you." She says, before standing up and shouting, "Kirito's over there, down that alley!" Immediately every player in the vicinity rushes toward the alley she points out or for her. Winking, Argo flips off the building, leaving Kirito to outrun the crowd of players she stirred up.

Cursing, Kirito slides down a drain pipe and starts sprinting for the river. His best bet is to lose them in the dockyards. You can't drown in the river either. You just fall unconscious and wake up on the shore, at least for now.

Kirito, who successfully ducked the search parties, crouches on the roof of the inn across the street from the Main building to the UF. The mansion is massive, with an eight-foot gate guarded at every entrance. Other players are patrolling the grounds inside. Kirito wraps his black and grey clothes tighter around him and prepares to jump. He's got once shot at this- the potion he bought is so weak it only lasts three seconds. Kirito tenses and watches as the one guard turns and follows the gate, waiting for the other one to shift to the left and-

There's a blur in front of the eastern gate, lasting only part of a second as someone darted in and jumped on the top of the decorative post by the gate before launching themselves upwards and onto the roof of the building. Had the guard not been leaning in to see the hand of cards he had been dealt better by the firelight, he would have seen the blur. But as is, he missed it entirely. "I fold." He announces, tossing his cards into the fire and looking out at the darkness. But he is too late.

Kirito breathes on the roof of the building, careful not to knock anything over the edge as he shuffles around. Some discreet questions and eavesdropping, and he learned that the charter is displayed in the main hall. It's not locked down or anything, just on display for anyone to see. Kirito slides down the side of the roof and eases onto a windowsill. He nudges the window open and climbs through. Dusting off his coat, he then flips the fabric around, now showing the orange red interior. Shrugging, he walks through the door and down the hall. With his head down, no one recognizes him and Kirito walks into the main hall unopposed. Sitting in a frame on the wall is the charter. Making sure no one is watching him, Kirito walks right up to it and picks it up off the wall before sticking it in his pocket.

"And just what are you doing?" A voice demands.

"We have a new pledge; they need to sign." Kirito bluffs.

"Really?" They say disbelievingly, "All pledges sign in the hall."

"Not this one." Kirito says through his teeth.

"And what makes this one special?"

Kirito grabs their jacket and pulls them close, "Because we don't want anyone to know that Argo the Rat is part of the United Front."

"Holy-" the man says. "I see now. Take it. I'll make sure no one raises a fuss. We really got Argo?"

"Whiskers and all. Thanks dude." Kirito says, shaking his hand and walking off.

Whistling to himself, only to realize that a, that looks really suspicious because no one else is whistling, and b, he can't whistle, Kirito settles for a scowl. The guards at the gate barely give him a second look as he trudges past, never suspecting a thing.

Once he's safely away, Kirito moves the charter from his pocket to his inventory. He'll figure out how to destroy it later. Right now, he's got to figure out how to get the master key from the Baron.

Castle Beginning, aptly named, is nothing special. It is the plainest and simplest of the castles in Aincrad, having only a moat and drawbridge to protect it. Most of the interior is the player spawning rooms, with only one tower of NPCs. And the dungeons, which are accessed by another way. Since the direct approach might just work, Kirito walks straight up to the gates.

"Halt, who goes there?" a guard cries out.

"I come bearing news of a rebellion starting!" Kirito shouts back. "I wish to meet with the Baron."

"Have you any proof?" The guard asks when he gets to the gate. "Um," Kirito panics, never imagining he'd get this far. The first thing he pulls from his inventory is the charter of the UF. The guard snatches the paper out of his hand and scans it over.

"This is preposterous. Come back with a real claim!" he sneers, walking away.

"Hey, wait!" Kirito shouts, panicking at the paper now vanishing into the castle, "My paper!"

"Peasants." The guard sneers, tossing the page into a nearby fire. The rules must work differently for NPCs, because the page lights up and shatters. Behind Kirito, the town erupts into sound as lights come on and shouting starts. Screams are heard echoing from the streets, and the main hall of the UF is set aflame.

"By the Divine! Maybe you weren't lying after all. Follow me to the Baron." The guard says, immediately cranking the gate open. The two rush past every other checkpoint, and soon Kirito is waiting in an office. He eyes the safe behind the desk but doesn't dare risk being caught trying to break in by the guards. Unlike player punishments, the one's enforced by NPC's are not resistible. They were supposed to be resolved via email in the real world, but since no one could log out, Kirito would simply be stuck in prison forever.

Just as he almost decided to go for it, the door bursts open. The baron, wrapped in a robe, walks in and sits at the desk.

"They told me you wish to inform me of an insurrection?" he asks.

"Yes, there was a cabal who sought to overthrow the crown. I had a list of their names, but the guard did not believe me, and the list was destroyed." Kirito says.

"This is most disturbing. I shall call for reinforcements from the capitol to suppress this rebellion." The baron announces, waving for a scribe, who he orders to fetch some ink and paper.

"If I may, the rebellion, they have imprisoned loyal subjects in your prisons." Kirito says.

"They dare use my cells to house my own people?" The baron thunders.

"My lord, I am told you have a key to those cells. If you were to give it to me, just for a time, I could free the prisoners without drawing a fuss. The insurrection will be none the wiser."

"I am loathe to just pass over my mater key, young lad. It unlocks all doors within this town. Why should I pass such a treasure to you?" the baron asks.

Kirito blanks and sits in silence for a moment. He doesn't have anything to say- he didn't do any quests or reputation boosters. In fact, the only thing he did officially was get reprimanded for sneaking into the gardens.

"I see. I will not be handing over perhaps the most important piece of treasure my office contains." The baron goes to stand before Kirito shouts.

"Wait! There's a flower, in the east garden. It's a sapphire skylily, the symbol of the throne of Clouds. It can only be there by your decree, since display of such a flower is banned under imperial law. You support the true throne, but pay lip service to the empire for your people." Kirito says, trying to remember the quest details from the seventh floor.

"How can you know this?" The baron says, falling into his seat. "I sealed every entrance to that garden."

"There is a hole in the south wall, hidden by a statue and some bushes. Some of your guard know of this- they chased me out." Kirito says.

The baron stands and pokes his head outside, calling someone in. "Do a search of the guard and find me those who know of this sabotage." He says to the captain. "If what you say is true, your knave, then I will loan you my master key." He tells Kirito.

The two of them sit in the office for a while, waiting. Finally, The captain walks in, salutes, and signals behind him. Two guards are dragged in, their hands bound.

"The traitors, my lord." The captain reports.

"It seems I owe you a great deal, young knave." The baron says, opening his safe and pulling out a copper key on a leather band. "Protect it well. And Captain, pass along a kit to the young knave. We have extra now, don't we."

"It will be done." The captain says. Kirito barely hangs the key around his neck before he is tugged along and tossed out the gate, but with a pile of gear in his arms. Kirito checks over the stats of the guard armor and finds it's nearly as good as the level 2 drops in the field. He stashes it away, eager to not draw attention to himself and heads for the market. The smith, Lisbeth had better be there.

The market and the whole city is in uproar. Only the guild only areas are peaceful, as most of the UF erupted into anarchy once they got free of the ponzi scheme. Kirito forces his way through crowds of angry players and bewildered NPCs, who tomorrow will understand. Inside the market itself, a winding network of covered shops and walkways, there's a haze and knots of people brawling as best they can. Since there is no damage inside a City's walls, the only force they can use is kinetic, by throwing the person back. As such, wrestling matches and scrums are the only source of enforcing your will on another. Kirito bashes his way through the crowd and smoke, searching for any smith. He frees one or two from attackers, but none are Lisbeth so far. Kirito is starting to think he's at the wrong place when he hears a loud pounding. Darting around the next corner, he sees a crowd of people, cornering a girl with pink hair and a massive hammer.

Lisbeth had been smart, when the chaos erupted she reached into her forge and pulled out her hammer. That was the only reason she hadn't been overwhelmed and pressed into joining another guild. She was eyeing the crowd, tracking who the next person to try and charge her would be. She looked left and noted those who looked riled up before sweeping right and nearly clipping some fool with the head of the hammer. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a guy charge in and she twisted, her hands following her hips, and the hammer following them. With a mighty crack, the guy is thrown back, the purple barrier of immortal object raising up, but she's done what she needs to. Out of the hole in the crowd, a different guy dives in and somehow ducks under her swing. As he rises back up he backhands one of those who tried to follow him and tosses the guy back.

"Lisbeth?" Kirito asks.

"Who's asking?" she calls back, cracking another two people with her hammer.

"I'm a friend of the only true independent capitalist in here." Kirito answers.

"Who?"

"Argo, she sells- never mind." He says.

"Right. Well, I'm in a bit of a spot right now, so maybe another time." Lisbeth replies.

"No time. When I say back, swing your hammer into the wall behind us- we're making our own escape." Kirito says.

"wait, what? What do you-"

"Back!"

Lisbeth doesn't know what to think, or what's going on, but she reacts, throwing her weight behind her swing at the wall. The hammer punches through the stone and Kirito drags her out from the crowd, shoving her into running.

When they finally stop under a bridge, Lisbeth turns.

"You just cost me all of my materials!" She shrieks. "That was everything!"

"I'll replace it." Kirito promises. "What do you need to make a copy of this?" He pulls the key out from under his shirt and Lisbeth makes a grabby motion. Reluctantly, Kirito hands it over.

"Hmm, copper. Not complex in design, but more so than normal keys here. I need a place to work, the coal and metal to shape, and sand."

"That it?" Kirito asks.

"No, I also need you to replace everything you cost me." She snarks, tossing the key back to him.

"I know a place that has almost all of that." Kirito says, tucking the key back away. 'Follow me."

Inside one of the dock warehouses is an illicit moonshine operation. It's buried under the floorboards and inside a locked boathouse- but if you know the route to swim in there's nothing stopping you. Kirito leads Lisbeth into the space and starts tapping on the walls.

"There should be a hidden panel around here somewhere- they also use this place to file away the rival companies' anchors. Boats drift out of harbor, costing them profit. But, both companies do that, so they have to fix their anchors too. But not in public, there are standards you know?" Kirito rambles.

"Sure." Lisbeth says, leaning on a patch of wall, only to have the thing swing aside.

"You found it!" Kirito says.

"Hot coal, I did." Lisbeth says in disbelief.

"So, all you need now is the metal, right?" he asks.

"Yeah. Anything should do. In fact, with all the iron around here.." she starts.

"Don't." Kirito warns. "This key is special. Any copies, I want to only work once."

"Okay." She says slowly, trying to piece how the key is special before giving up. "A thin metal, or a light one then."

"Would shale work?" Kirito asks.

"That's not a metal, but yeah. I can shape it." She relies.

"Sweet. I'll be back in a few." Kirito replies, moving to leave.

"Before you go, leave the key. I'll start on the mold." Lisbeth lies.

"Okay." Kirito says reluctantly.

About an hour later, Kirito comes back. The boathouse is sweltering hot, and the forge is running.

"Good timing, I just got the mold done." Lisbeth says, wiping away sweat. "What do you have for me?"

"How about some roofing tiles from the UF headquarters?" Kirito says with a grin, pulling the stack from his inventory.

Brushing away the soot on them, Lisbeth smiles predatorially, "Perfect. I'm going to love smashing these."

"It's going to take about an hour to make all of these." She tells Kirito.

"Okay." Kirito says nodding. He then sits against the wall of the shack and falls asleep. Lisbeth watches in surprise, before shrugging and starting to work.

Kirito wakes about an hour later to a smiling Lisbeth.

"All done." She grins. "Here's the original."

"Thanks." Kirito says, reaching for it.

"Not so fast, my replacement supplies?" Lisbeth asks. Kirito pulls back and fiddles with his menu.

"This should be all of it." He says as he sends the trade request.

Lisbeth looks it over and tries not to show the level of surprise. This is more than she had, far more. There are metals she hadn't even heard of yet tucked away, and some higher quality ores too.

"Y- yeah it's all good." She says, accepting the deal and tossing him the key. Kirito tucks it away and grabs the flimsy shams off the anvil before preparing to dive in.

"Wait!" Lisbeth says, calling him back. Kirito looks back at he and she sighs, pulling something out of her bust. "Here. I lied to you earlier about making the mold. I copied the key in iron. It should last a while."

Kirito smirks, "I knew you did. I'm not that dumb." He plucks the iron key from her fingers and waves, "See you around." He dives into the water and swims off, leaving her alone. Lisbeth fingers the other key tucked in her other cup and tries to fight the smile. Whoever he is, he's good.

Kirito surfaces on the other side of the river and quietly climbs out of the water. He quickly pulls his coat tight and sinks into the shadows cast by the early dawn.

Standing outside the prison entrance, Kirito ruminates on his next problem. How to get the shams into the prison. The direct route won't work, as the army uses written verification cards. Efficiency stops all the fun. Kirito is at a loss until he looks up and notices all of the birds congregating on the roof of the building. He sneaks away and manages to climb the hedge up to the roof. On the roof, each cell has bars over it. Open bars. Kirito thanks the code for lazy programmers and drops a key in each cell he walks over that is occupied. For good measure, he goes back and seeds the empty cells with any leftover keys. Job done, Kirito climbs back down and makes his way across town.

Kirito is sitting in a ramshackle inn on the DDA side of town sipping water when the message comes to him.

**Argo: I don't know how, but you did it all in one night**

**Argo: You must really want out ki-kun**

**Argo: going stir crazy already, shame on you. We've been having so much fun!**

**Argo: Meet me by the windmill near the river at 2**

Kirito finishes his water and waits, not wanting to risk being spotted in the morning bustle. Once the rush dies down, Kirito pays his tab and ducks out the side door. He sticks to the back alleys as he crosses town, careful to not draw attention.

As he travels near the border of DDA and Army, he spies a group of DDA harassing a girl. They've got her pinned in a dead-end alley- four on one. Kirito normally wouldn't bother, but in the past 12 hours, he's managed to collapse one guild and severely harm another. The DDA so far has escaped his wave of destruction, and that's just not fair. With a grin, Kirito launches off the roof and into the fray.

Asuna is desperate. These guys have been harassing her for two days now, trying to force her to sign up. She's said no, but they've gotten pushier and pushier until now, when she made a wrong turn and they cornered her. She's almost given up hope when out of nowhere, a shadow strikes. All she can see is a black cloak fluttering in the wind as the person runs away, but the destruction they left behind is impressive. They completely smashed two of the four to the ground and shoulder checked the other two on their way out. As she's sprinting away, Asuna hears the guys curse the player.

_Kirito. That's an interesting name._

Kirito manages to make it to the windmill without being pursued. He checks, but it's only 1:43 and the place is empty. Kirito goes to sit down and nap, but a voice stops him.

"Wow, helping damsels in distress now. How noble of you." Argo says, standing from the bench Kirito just checked and was empty.

"How did you-"

"It'll cost you." She sings.

"One day, I'm going to have the cash and you'll tell me." He warns, only to have her laugh.

"That's cute ki-kun. Now, I promised you a tunnel out of this city." Argo walks to the windmill and catches onto one of the blades. She rides to the top and steps off.

"Now, here's the trick." She says. "From here, you have to jump into the river- you see that big stone, the one shaped like a potato? About three feet to the left. From this height, you'll clip through to the sewer below. Once there, you know the way out ki-kun."

"That's the path Argo?" Kirito says, exasperated.

"Yep! Now have fun!" she says, jumping off.

"They all look like Potatoes dammit!" he shouts after her. Her giggles echo back up to him, and Kirito sighs. He does his best to pick out the right rock and aim. Word will get out quickly that some fool is jumping from the windmill, so he only has a couple tries to make it before he's interrupted.

The first one he misses and just splashes in the water.

The second doesn't go much better. Unfortunately, he has no idea if he's getting closer since this either works or it doesn't.

The third time, he can hear shouts coming from the path up. He jumps, and almost- he almost had it, Kirito knows. Kirito races back up, and just as he can start to see people running toward him, Kirito leaps off and crashes into the river. He sinks through the cold water, feels the game try to push him back up, feels one foot hit the bottom of the river, and the other doesn't. His left foot keeps going and the map icon in his vision flickers. Kirito desperately tries to force himself down further and with a loud burst of bubbles, his entire foot sinks into the sewer below and his map updates.

Decrepit Sewers, floor 2. With a flash his avatar vanishes only to reappear in the sewer. Kirito quickly equips the guard's armor, painfully aware that this is a level five dungeon and he is a mere level one. Something growls in the darkness, and Kirito smiles. This is what he came for.

Up above, by the windmill, the party of people mill about, but there is no one to be found. Slowly, they go their separate ways. From the shadows cast by the windmill, a girl with whiskers grins.


End file.
